Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 45

B6.12 Doublemeat Palace
Note: never watch this episode after lunch, its a gross-out one! Much of this episode harked back to the Sunnydale High days were something wacky like this would happen; it especially felt like that as Buffy, Willow and Xander were the main Scoobies involved. Its meant as a satirical look at America's fast food industry and whilst I appreciate that, its not the funny episode it could've been. As I've already said, its kinda gross and even though I've seen this episode a few times I couldn't for the life of me remember who the evil doer was in the end, probably because this is not that memorable an episode.
I did enjoy seeing Halfrek, I loved how she switched from demon to friend. It was less nice to see Amy back; I do understand why she doesn't want Willow to go magic-free and after 3 years of being a rat she probably doesn't have that many magical friends, but she's turned the corner into being a bitch. (5.5/10)

B6.13 Dead Things
This is a bit of a strange episode in that the main event of Buffy thinking she killed Katrina is over and done with very late and quickly into the episode. I wasn't that happy to see the re-appearance of the Trio in this episode and what they do is obviously chilling. It is some comfort that Andrew and Jonathan have a sense of guilt over what they helped to do and it least it steps the Trio up from annoying to actually threatening villains. Still its not a blast to watch.
As for Buffy, her guilt over 'killing' Katrina is very in character for her. Its hard not to recall Bad Girls from season 3 and the following episodes in which Faith killed a human. Buffy's instincts then were the same as in this episode and whilst that was slightly self- righteous (going to the police as her only option. If I remember rightly, in season 3 Giles said these things do happen), its nice to see that the Slayer hasn't changed too much.
Her breakdown with Tara at the end of the episode is one of my favourite scenes as its very heartfelt and honest. Up until this episode I've quite enjoyed Buffy and Spike's relationship as its felt more genuine than her past relationships but after this it starts to sour. The scene in which they were on the balcony in The Bronze looking at her friends was definitely a weird one and definitely a sign the relationship is getting twisted. (7/10)

A3.11 Birthday
As a 50th episode, this was a pretty good one and a nice way to honour one of the shows major characters. The impact Cordy's visions were having on her had to be resolved at some point and if it wasn't going to be death then becoming demon is probably the next way to go. There's a lot to love in this episode, the birthday scenes, phantom Dennis throwing a party for Cordy, Cordy's (brief) life as an actress, seeing Doyle again and of course the alternate dimension as they are always fun. They give a chance for the writers to have a little fun and for the actors to mix things up a little and at least this alternate world turned out better for Cordy than the world in Buffy's The Wish did! Oddly though this episode is not as good as I remembered. I still love it but there was a lot more talking and scenes where not very much happens than I thought there was. (9.5/10)

A3.12 Provider
This is a nice episode, silly, but its the last truly happy episode we get this season. The idea behind the episode was a good one, Angel needs to make money now that he has Connor, but honestly his money grabbing came as a bit of a u-turn, especially as he switched roles with Cordy as the money grabbing one. There were some sweet scenes though between Angel and Cordy also with Connor.
The love rivalry between Wes and Gunn is plainly evident in this episode and a little sad to see considering how close they used to be. Them both lusting after Fred definitely put some awkwardness into the episode. (7.5/10)